Lodovico Sforza--Known as Il Moro--His birth and childhood--Murder of
Duke Galeazzo Maria--Regency of Duchess Bona--Exile of the Sforza
brothers--Lodovico at Pisa--His invasion of Lombardy and return to Milan
--Death of Cecco Simonetta--Flight of Duchess Bona--Lodovico Regent of
Milan.
1451-1582
Lodovico Sforza was certainly one of the most remarkable figures of the
Italian Renaissance. He has generally been described as one of the
blackest. "Born for the ruin of Italy," was the verdict of his
contemporary Paolo Giovio, a verdict which every chronicler of the
sixteenth century has endorsed. These men who saw the disasters which
overwhelmed their country under the foreign rule, could not forget that
Charles VIII., the first French king who invaded Italy, had crossed the
Alps as the friend and ally of Lodovico Moro. They forgot how many
others were at least equally guilty, and did not realize the vast
network of intrigues in which Pope Julius II., the Venetian Signory, and
the King of Naples all had a share. Later historians with one consent
have accepted Paolo Giovio's view, and have made Lodovico responsible
for all the miseries which arose from the French invasion. The bitter
hatred with which both French and Venetian writers regarded the prince
who had foiled their countrymen and profited by their mistakes, has
helped to deepen this sinister impression. The greatest crimes were
imputed to him, the vilest calumnies concerning his personal character
found ready acceptance. But the more impartial judgment of modern
historians, together with the light thrown upon the subject by recently
discovered documents, has done much to modify our opinion of Lodovico's
character. The worst charges formerly brought against him, above all,
the alleged poisoning of his nephew, the reigning Duke of Milan, have
been dismissed as groundless and wholly alien to his nature and
character. On the other hand, his great merits and rare talents as ruler
and administrator have been fully recognized, while it is admitted on
all hands that his generous and enlightened encouragement of art and
letters entitles him to a place among the most illustrious patrons of
the Renaissance. To his keen intellect and discerning eye, to his fine
taste and quick sympathy with all forms of beauty, we owe the production
of some of the noblest works of art that human hands have ever
fashioned. To his personal encouragement and magnificent liberality we
owe the grandest monuments of Lombard architecture, and the finest
development of Milanese painting, the façade of the Certosa and the
cupola of Sta. Maria delle Grazie, the frescoes and altar-pieces of the
Brera and the Ambrosiana. Above all, it was at the Milanese court, under
the stimulating influence of the Moro, that Leonardo da Vinci's finest
work was done.
As a man, Lodovico Sforza is profoundly interesting. Burckhardt has
called him the most complete among the princely figures of the Italian
Renaissance, and there can be no doubt that alike in his virtues and in
his faults, he was curiously typical of the age in which he lived.
Guicciardini, who was certainly no friend to him, and regarded him as
the inveterate foe of Florence, describes him as "a creature of very
rare perfection, most excellent for his eloquence and industry and many
gifts of nature and spirit, and not unworthy of the name of milde and
mercifull;" and the Milanese doctor Arluno, the author of an unpublished
chronicle in the Biblioteca Marciana at Venice, says, "He had a sublime
soul and universal capacity. Whatever he did, he surpassed expectation,
in the fine arts and learning, in justice and benevolence. And he had no
equal among Italian princes for wisdom and sagacity in public affairs."
Contemporary writers describe him as very pleasant in manner and
gracious in speech, always gentle and courteous to others, ready to
listen, and never losing his temper in argument. He shared in the
laxity of morals common to his age; but was a man of deep affections as
well as strong passions, fondly attached to his children and friends,
while the profound and lasting grief with which he lamented his dead
wife amazed his more fickle contemporaries. Singularly refined and
sensitive by nature, he shrank instinctively from bloodshed, and had a
horror of all violent actions. In this he differed greatly from his
elder brother Galeazzo Maria, who was a monster of lust and cruelty,
intent only on gratifying his savage instincts, and as callous to human
suffering as he was reckless of human life. Lodovico, as his most
hostile critics agree, was emphatically not a cruel man, and rarely
consented to condemn even criminals to death. But, like many other
politicians who have great ends in view, he was often unscrupulous as to
the means which he employed, and, as Burckhardt very truly remarked,
would probably have been surprised at being held responsible for the
means by which he attained his object. Trained from early youth in the
most tortuous paths of Italian diplomacy, he acted on the principle laid
down by the Venetian Marino Sanuto, that the first duty of the really
wise statesman is to persuade his enemies that he means to do one thing
and then do another. But in these tangled paths he often over-reached
himself, and only succeeded in inspiring all parties with distrust; and,
as too often happens, this deceiver was deceived in his turn, and in the
end betrayed by men in whom his whole trust had been placed. Another
curious feature of Lodovico's character was the strain of moral
cowardice which, in spite of great personal bravery, marked his public
actions at the most critical moments. This sudden failure of courage, or
loss of nerve, that to his contemporaries seemed little short of
madness, absolutely inexplicable in a man who had faced death without a
thought on many a battle-field, ultimately wrought his own downfall as
well as that of his State.
And yet, in spite of all his faults and failings, in spite of the
strange tissue of complex aims and motives which swayed his course,
Lodovico Sforza was a man of great ideas and splendid capacities, a
prince who was in many respects distinctly in advance of his age. His
wise and beneficial schemes for the encouragement of agriculture and the
good of his poorer subjects, his careful regulations for the
administration of the University and advancement of all branches of
learning, his extraordinary industry and minute attention to detail,
cannot fail to inspire our interest and command our admiration. In more
peaceful times and under happier circumstances he would have been an
excellent ruler, and his great dream of a united kingdom of North Italy
might have been well and nobly realized. As it was, the history of
Lodovico Moro belongs to the saddest tragedies of the Renaissance, and
the splendour of his prosperity and the greatness of his fall became the
common theme of poet and moralist.
The story of Lodovico's childhood is one of the pleasantest parts of his
strangely chequered career. He was the fourth son of Francesco Sforza,
the famous soldier of fortune who had married Madonna Bianca, daughter
of the last Visconti, and reigned in right of his wife as Duke of Milan
during twenty years. On the 19th of August, 1451, a year and a half
after the great captain had boldly entered Milan and been proclaimed
Duke, Duchess Bianca gave birth at her summer palace of Vigevano to a
fine boy. This "_bel puello_," as he is called in the despatch
announcing the news to his proud father, received the name of Lodovico
Mauro, which was afterwards altered to Lodovico Maria, when, after his
recovery from a dangerous illness at five years old, his mother placed
him under the special protection of the Blessed Virgin. On this occasion
Bianca vowed rich offerings to the shrine of Il Santo at Padua, and in
discharge of this vow, her faithful servant Giovanni Francesco Stanga of
Cremona was sent to Padua in February, 1461, to present a life-size
image of the boy richly worked in silver, together with a complete set
of vestments and of altar plate bearing the ducal arms, to the ark of
the blessed Anthony. In documents still preserved in the Paduan archives
the boy is twice over mentioned as _Lodovicus Maurus filius quartus
masculus_, but the silver image itself bore the inscription, "_Pro
sanitate filii_. Lodovici Mariæ, 1461."[2] There can, however, be little
doubt that Maurus was the second name first given to Lodovico, and that
this was the true origin of the surname _Il Moro_ by which Francesco
Sforza's son became famous in after-years. The most ingenious
explanations of this name have been invented by Italian chroniclers.
Prato and Lomazzo both say that Lodovico was called Il Moro because of
the darkness of his complexion and long black hair. Guicciardini repeats
the same, but Paolo Giovio, who had seen Lodovico at Como, asserts that
his complexion was fair, and he owed this surname to the mulberry-tree
which he adopted as his device, because it waits till the winter is well
over to put forth its leaves, and is therefore called the most prudent
of all trees. As a matter of fact, there is no doubt that the surname
was given to Lodovico by his parents. "He was first called Moro by his
father Francesco and his mother Bianca in his earliest years," writes
Prato, and we find the same expression in the verse of a Milanese court
poet: "_Et Maurum læto patris cognomine dictum_." The name naturally
provoked puns. The dark-eyed boy with his long black hair and bushy
eyebrows went by the nickname of Moro, and as he grew up, adopted both
the Moor's head and the mulberry-tree as his badge. These devices in
their turn supplied the poets and painters of his court with themes on
which they were never tired of exercising their wit and ingenuity. Moors
and Moorish costumes were introduced in every masquerade and ballet, a
Moorish page was represented brushing the robes of Italy in a fresco of
the Castello of Milan, while mulberry colour became fashionable among
the ladies of the Moro's court, and was commonly worn by the servants
and pages in the palace. Lodovico early gave signs of the love of
literature and the great abilities which distinguished him in
after-life. His quickness in learning by heart, his extraordinary
memory, and the fluency with which he wrote and spoke Latin amazed his
tutors. And he was fortunate in receiving an excellent education from
the first Greek scholars of the day. Madonna Bianca, the only daughter
of Filippo Maria, the last Visconti who had betrothed her before she was
eight years old to Francesco Sforza, proved herself the best of wives
and mothers. By her courage and wisdom she helped her husband to gain
possession of her dead father's duchy, and won the hearts of all her
subjects by her goodness. While Francesco was engaged with affairs of
state, she directed the studies of her children, and gave her six sons
an admirable training in learning and knightly exercises. "Let us
remember," she said to her son's tutor, the learned scholar Filelfo,
"that we have princes to educate, not only scholars." We find her
setting the boys a theme on the manner in which princes should draw up
treaties, and desiring them in her absence to write to her once a week
in Latin. Several of these letters are still preserved in the archives
of Milan. There is one, for instance, in which Lodovico, then sixteen
years old, tells his mother that he is sending her seventy quails, two
partridges, and a pheasant, the result of a day's sport in the forest,
but takes care to assure her that the pleasures of the chase will never
make him neglect his books.
Many are the pleasant glimpses we catch of the family circle, whether in
the Corte vecchia or old ducal palace of the Viscontis at Milan, in the
beautiful park and gardens of the Castello at Pavia, or in their country
homes of Vigevano and Binasco. We see Duke Francesco riding out with his
young sons through the streets of Milan, visiting the churches and
convents that were rising on all sides, the new hospital, which was the
object of Madonna Bianca's tender care, the oak avenues and gardens with
which she loved to surround her favourite shrines. We find the boys at
home, helping their mother to entertain her guests with music and
dancing, and accompanying her on visits to the noble Milanese families.
One day their grandmother, Agnese di Maino, came to see the duke's sons
with an old gentleman from Navarre, who went home declaring that he had
never seen such wise and well-educated children; another time we hear of
a Madonna Giovanna coming to spend the day at the palace, and dancing
all the evening with Lodovico Maria; and when the duchess took her
younger children to visit Don Tommaseo de' Rieti, general laughter was
excited by the little four-year-old Ascanio, the future cardinal, who
walked straight up to a portrait of the duke, exclaiming, "There is my
lord father!" When the newly elected Pope Pius II., who as Eneas Sylvius
Piccolomini had often been in Milan, came to visit the duke in 1457, he
found Galeazzo reading Cicero, and his little brothers with their
cherub faces sitting round their tutor, intent on his discourse; while
on one occasion their sister Ippolita, the pupil of the great
Constantine Lascaris, pronounced a Latin oration in honour of His
Holiness. On Christmas day, a festival which was always celebrated with
much pomp at Milan, each of the duke's four elder sons came forward and
recited a Latin speech, and Lodovico delighted all who were present by
the ease and grace of his bearing, and the eloquent periods in which he
extolled his father's great deeds in peace and war.
The duke himself always singled out Lodovico for especial notice, and
said the boy would do great things. It was, no doubt, his sense of the
youthful Moro's talents that made Francesco choose him, at the age of
thirteen, to be the leader of the body of three thousand men which were
to join in the Crusade preached by Pope Pius II. On the 2nd of June,
1464, the ducal standard, bearing the golden lion of the house of Sforza
and the adder of the Visconti, was solemnly committed to the charge of
the young Crusader, before the eyes of the whole court, on the piazza in
front of the old palace, which was gaily decorated for the occasion with
garlands and tapestries. But the Pope died, and the idea of the Crusade
was abandoned. Lodovico, however, was sent by his father to Cremona, the
city which had been Duchess Bianca's dowry, and whose inhabitants were
among the most loyal subjects of the Sforza princes. Here he lived
during the next two years, enjoying his foretaste of power, and making
himself very popular with the Cremonese. In 1465, his accomplished
sister was married to Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, and Lorenzo de Medici
came to Milan for the nuptials. Then these two men, who in days to come
were to be so often named together as the most illustrious patrons of
art and letters in the Renaissance, met for the first time, and
discovered the mutual tastes which in future years often brought them
into close relation.
The sudden death of Duke Francesco in 1466 brought a change in
Lodovico's position, and the ingratitude with which the new duke,
Galeazzo, treated his widowed mother, naturally irritated his brothers.
In October, 1468, Bianca retired to Cremona, where she died a week
after her arrival--"more from sorrow of heart than sickness of body,"
wrote her doctor. The good duchess was buried by her husband's side in
the Duomo of Milan, and was long and deeply lamented both by her
children and subjects, and by none more than her son Lodovico, who
always remembered his mother with the deepest affection. But he remained
on good terms with Galeazzo, and was deputed by the new duke to receive
his bride, Bona of Savoy, when the princess arrived at Genoa, from the
French court, where her youth had been spent with her sister, the wife
of King Louis XI. During the next ten years Lodovico lived in enforced
idleness at the Milanese court, and, freed from the restraint of his
parents' authority, abandoned himself to idle pleasures. All we have
from his pen at this period are two short letters. In one, written from
Milan and dated April 19, 1476, he asks the Cardinal of Novara to stand
godfather to the illegitimate son whom his mistress, Lucia Marliani,
Countess of Melzi, had borne him, and who was to be baptized at Pavia.
The other is an affectionate letter addressed from Vigevano a year later
to Lucia herself, rejoicing to hear of her well-being, and looking
forward to seeing her after the feast of St. George. Whether the son was
Leone Sforza, afterwards apostolic protonotary, or whether he was the
child whose death Lodovic lamented a few years later, does not appear,
but all his life the Moro retained a sincere regard for the mother,
Lucia Marliani, and left her certain lands by his will.
Meanwhile, in the conduct of his elder brother Galeazzo he had the worst
possible example. Once in possession of supreme power, the new duke gave
himself up to the most unbridled course of vice and cruelty. The
profligacy of his life, and the horrible tortures which he inflicted on
the hapless victims of his jealousy and anger, caused Milanese
chroniclers to describe him as another Nero. He was commonly believed to
have poisoned both his mother and Dorotea Gonzaga, the betrothed bride
of whom he wished to rid himself when a more desirable marriage
presented itself. These charges were probably groundless, but some of
his actions went far to justify the suspicions of madness which he
aroused in the minds of his contemporaries. When, for instance, he
ordered his artists to decorate a hall at the Castello at Pavia with
portraits of the ducal family in a single night, under pain of instant
death, the Ferrarese Diarist had good reason to describe the new Duke of
Milan as a prince guilty of great crimes and greater follies. At the
same time, Galeazzo showed himself a liberal patron of art and learning.
He founded a library at Milan, invited doctors and priests to the
University of Pavia, and brought singers from all parts of the world to
form the choir of the ducal chapel. During his reign a whole army of
painters and sculptors were employed to decorate the interior of the
Castello of the Porta Giovia at Milan, which his father had rebuilt when
he gave up the ground in front of the old palace to the builders of the
Duomo, and which now became the chief ducal residence. Under his
auspices printing was introduced, and the first book ever produced in
Italy, the Grammar of Lascaris--a Greek professor who had taken refuge
at the court of the Sforzas on the fall of Constantinople--appeared at
Milan in 1476. The splendour of his court surpassed anything that had
been yet seen. Great rejoicings took place in 1469, when Lorenzo de
Medici came to Milan to stand godfather to the duke's infant son, and
Galeazzo was so delighted at the sight of the costly diamond necklace
which the Magnificent Medici presented to Duchess Bona on this occasion,
that he exclaimed, "You must be godfather to all my children!" The
wealth and luxury displayed by the duke and duchess when they visited
Florence two years later with a suite of two thousand persons,
scandalized the old-fashioned citizens, and, in Machiavelli's opinion,
proved the beginning of a marked degeneracy in public morals.
For a time the Milanese were amused by the _fêtes_ provided for them,
and dazzled by the sight of all this splendour; but retribution came in
time, and on the Feast of St. Stephen in the winter of 1476, Duke
Galeazzo was assassinated at the doors of the church of S. Stefano by
three courtiers whom he had wronged. The Milanese chronicler Bernardino
Corio gives a dramatic account of the scene, which he himself witnessed,
and relates how Bona, who was haunted by a presentiment of coming evil,
implored her lord not to leave the Castello that morning, and how three
ravens were seen hovering about Galeazzo's head on that very morning,
when, in his splendid suit of crimson brocade, the tall and handsome
duke entered the church doors, while the choir sang the words, "_Sic
transit gloria mundi_."
"The peace of Italy is dead!" exclaimed Pope Sixtus IV. when the news of
Galeazzo's murder reached him. And the issue proved that he was not far
wrong. In her distress, the widowed duchess, who seems to have been
fondly attached to her husband, in spite of his crimes and follies,
addressed a piteous letter to the Holy Father owning her dead lord's
guilt, and asking him if he could issue a bull absolving him from his
many and grievous sins. In her anxiety for Galeazzo's soul, she promised
to atone as far as possible for his crimes by making reparation to those
whom he had wronged, and offered to build churches and monasteries,
endow hospitals, and perform other works of mercy. The Pope does not
seem to have returned a direct answer to this touching prayer, but he
took advantage of Bona's present mood to hurry on the marriage of
Caterina Sforza, the duke's natural daughter, with his own nephew,
Girolamo Riario, which had been arranged by Galeazzo, and which took
place in the following April. Lodovico was absent at the time of
Galeazzo's assassination, and with his brother Sforza, Duke of Bari, was
spending Christmas at the court of Louis XI. at Tours. They had not been
banished, as Corio asserts, but, tired of idleness and fired with a wish
to see the world, they had gone on a journey to France, and, after
visiting Paris and Angers, were on their way home when the news of the
duke's murder reached them. But if any hope of obtaining a share in the
government had been aroused in Lodovico's heart, it was doomed to speedy
disappointment. Cecco Simonetta, the able secretary and minister who had
administered the state under Galeazzo, kept a firm hold on the reins of
government, ruled the Milanese in the name of Duchess Bona and her young
son Gian Galeazzo. The Sforza brothers soon found their position
intolerable, and the intervention of a friendly neighbour, the Marquis
of Mantua, was necessary before they could obtain any recognition of
their right. At his request, Bona agreed to give each of her
brothers-in-law a suitable residence in Milan, as well as a portion of
12,500 ducats from the revenues of their mother's inheritance, the city
of Cremona. Filippo Sforza, the second of the brothers, who is described
as weak in intellect and a person of no account, was content to live
peaceably in Milan, where his very existence seems to have been
forgotten by his family, and where the only mention of him that occurs
again is that of his death in 1492. The other brothers were sent to
Genoa, where an insurrection had broken out, and succeeded in subduing
the rebels and restoring peace. But when they returned to Milan at the
head of a victorious army, with their kinsman the valiant Condottiere
Roberto di Sanseverino, a movement was set on foot among the old
Ghibelline followers of Duke Francesco to obtain the regency for Sforza,
Duke of Bari. Cries of _Moro! Moro!_ began to be heard in the streets of
Milan. Simonetta, becoming alarmed, threw Donato del Conte, one of the
Ghibelline leaders, into prison, upon which Sanseverino and the Sforzas
loudly demanded his release. Simonetta gave them fair words in return,
and induced the dissatisfied chiefs to meet in the park of the Castello,
where they agreed to lay down their arms. But Sanseverino, suspecting
treachery, set spurs to his horse, and, riding with drawn sword in his
hand out of the city through the Porta Vercellina, crossed the Ticino,
and did not pause until he was in safety. His companions soon followed
his example. Ottaviano Sforza, the youngest of the family, a brave lad
of eighteen, was drowned in crossing the swollen Adda, and his three
remaining brothers were condemned to perpetual exile. Sforza was
banished to his duchy of Bari, in the kingdom of Naples, Ascanio to
Perugia, and Lodovico to the city of Pisa.
During the next eighteen months Lodovico lived at Pisa, fretting his
heart out in exile and wasting the best years of his life, as he
complained to Lorenzo de Medici. His friend could only counsel patience,
for, sympathize as he might with the banished prince, Lorenzo was
closely allied with the rulers of Milan, and Lodovico soon saw that his
only hope of seeing his native land again was to be found in the support
of Ferrante, King of Naples, the sworn foe of the Medici. This monarch
looked on Simonetta as a traitorous villain who had taken advantage of
Bona's weakness to usurp the supreme power in Milan, and wrote to King
Louis XI, begging him to come to his kinswoman's help and assist in
restoring the Duke of Bari and his brother to their rights. But the
French king had no wish to be drawn into the quarrel, and when Ferrante
endeavoured to obtain the restoration of his exiled kinsmen by fair
means and had failed, Sforza and Lodovico resolved to try the fortunes
of war once more. Roberto di Sanseverino, whose mother had been a niece
of Duke Francesco, and who had large estates of his own in Lombardy,
placed his sword at their disposal, and they knew they could reckon on
the secret support of their Sforza and Visconti kinsmen in Milan. Among
these, Lodovico had a devoted partisan in Beatrice d'Este, the sister of
Duke Ercole of Ferrara, who had lately been left a widow for the second
time by the death of her husband, the brave soldier Tristan Sforza, and
who kept up a secret correspondence with the exiled princes. Early in
February, 1479, the Sforza brothers and Roberto di Sanseverino landed in
Genoa and boldly raised the standard of revolt. Simonetta retaliated by
confiscating their revenues and proclaiming them rebels, while he hired
Ercole D'Este and Federigo Gonzaga to join the Florentines in resisting
the advance of the Neapolitan forces. In the midst of these warlike
preparations, Sforza Duke of Bari died very suddenly at Genoa. His death
was attributed, after the fashion of the day, to poison secretly sent
him from Milan; but, as Corio remarks, many persons thought that his
excessive stoutness was the true cause of his decease. Lodovico, whom
the King of Naples immediately invested with the dukedom of Bari in his
brother's stead, now crossed the Genoese Alps and boldly invaded the
territory of Tortona. But the enterprise was a perilous one, and the
allied forces of Milan were preparing to crush his little army, when an
unexpected turn of fortune altered the whole condition of affairs.
Duchess Bona, a very beautiful woman, but, as Commines remarks, "_une
dame de petit sens_" had become infatuated with a certain Antonio
Tassino, a Ferrarese youth of low extraction, whom Galeazzo had
appointed carver at the royal table, and who, after the duke's death,
had made himself indispensable to his mistress. The _liaison_ had
created a coolness between the duchess and her prime minister, of which
Beatrice d'Este and some of the Sforza party cleverly availed
themselves to widen the breach. They deplored the growing arrogance of
Simonetta, and lamented the success of his intrigues against Lodovico,
who was his sister-in-law's nearest relative and rightful protector.
Acting on their suggestion, Bona took a sudden resolve. She sent a
messenger to invite Lodovico to return to Milan in his nephew's name,
and late in the evening of the 7th of October, 1479, the Moro, leaving
the camp at Tortona, arrived in Milan, and was secretly admitted into
the Castello by the garden door. The duchess and her son, Gian Galeazzo,
a boy of ten, received him with open arms, and great was the joy among
all the Ghibellines of Milan, when they heard to their surprise that
Duke Francesco's son was once more among them. Simonetta looked grave,
as he well might, when he heard the news. "Most illustrious duchess," he
said to Bona the next day, "do you know what will happen? My head will
be cut off, and before long you will lose this state." But he proceeded
to congratulate Lodovico on his return, and was received by him in the
most courteous manner. When the news of these events reached the rival
camps outside Milan, a truce was proclaimed, and the leaders on either
side disbanded their armies. The object of the expedition was attained,
and Lodovico restored to his rightful place at Milan. But neither
Roberto di Sanseverino nor the other Ghibelline leader could be content
while their hated rival Simonetta was still at large. They sent
messengers to Lodovico, imperiously demanding his summary punishment,
and declaring that they would never lay down their arms until he and his
confederates were imprisoned. After some delay, Lodovico yielded to
their demand; Bona's faithful secretary was arrested and sent to Pavia
with his brother, while the fickle populace sacked their houses.
Congratulations poured in from all the kinsfolk of the Sforza family.
Caterina Sforza, the illegitimate daughter of Duke Galeazzo, who had
been brought up by Bona with her own children, wrote from Rome, where
she was living with her husband, Girolamo Riario, Count of Imola and
Forli at the papal court, to rejoice with her brother the young duke
over the fall of the hated minister; "_quelo nefandissimo Cecho_ the
murderer of our family and our flesh and blood." Now at length, he
adds, she will be able to visit Milan and see her beloved mother once
more in peace and safety. And her husband's uncle, Pope Sixtus IV.,
himself wrote to congratulate both duke and duchess on the arrest of
Simonetta and the restoration of peace and tranquillity. Lodovico was
now formally associated with Duchess Bona in the regency, and his
brother Ascanio was recalled and advanced to the dignity of Archbishop
of Pavia. Before many months were over peace was concluded with
Florence, and with the full approval of King Ferrante, the Duke of
Ferrara accepted Lodovico Sforza as his future son-in-law.
Meanwhile party feeling still ran high in Milan, and the Ghibellines,
with Sanseverino and Pusterla at their head, never ceased to clamour for
Simonetta's head. People began to complain that Lodovico, who had been
brought back to power by the Ghibellines, was after all a Guelph at
heart, and a traitor to his party. In vain the Moro advocated milder
measures, and wrote a letter to Simonetta, offering to release him on
payment of a ransom. The old secretary, who was upwards of seventy years
of age, refused, saying that he was ill and weary of life, and had no
fear of death. At length Lodovico, vexed by the continual recriminations
of his Ghibelline followers, reluctantly gave way. Bona signed the death
warrant of her old servant, and on the 30th of October, 1480, Simonetta
was beheaded in the Castello of Pavia. His brother Giovanni, an able and
learned scholar, was released, and lived to write the famous Sforziada,
or history of Duke Francesco's great deeds, which he dedicated to his
son Lodovico.
Already one-half of the unfortunate minister's prophecy had come true;
the other half was soon to be fulfilled. For a few months Bona rejoiced
in her freedom from the cares of state, and left all to Lodovico, "who
could do her no greater pleasure than not to speak of these things,"
says Commines. She herself was treated with the utmost respect, and
spent her time in feasting and dancing, and loaded her favourite with
honours. Tassino lived in rooms next to her own, and rode out with the
duchess on pillion behind him. But her favourite, encouraged by the
folly of his mistress, became every day more indolent, until one day he
kept Lodovico Sforza and the chief officers of state waiting at the door
of his room while he finished his toilet. Yet nothing could cure Bona's
infatuation, and she went so far as to beg Lodovico to appoint her
minion's father to be governor of the _Rocca_ of Porta Zobia (Giovia),
as the Castello of Milan was called. Fortunately Eustachio, who had been
appointed to the post by Duke Galeazzo, and solemnly charged to hold it,
in case of his own death, until his son was of age, refused to give up
the keys; and the young duke and his brother Ermes were conducted into
the Rocca, while at the same moment Tassino received an order from the
Council to leave Milan. This he did without delay, taking with him a
large sum of money and many valuable pearls and jewels which he had
received from the duchess. When Bona heard of her favourite's flight she
flew into a frantic rage, and, "forgetful alike of honour and maternal
duty," as Corio writes, she renounced her share of the regency, saying
that she placed her son in his uncle's care, and left Milan. "Like some
demented woman," continues Corio, she fled as far as Abbiategrasso,
where she was detained by Lodovico's orders, and not allowed to proceed
to France as she had intended. In the end, however, she effected her
purpose, and retired to her brother-in-law's Louis XI.'s court, where
she remained during the next few years, vowing vengeance against
Lodovico, and bitterly repenting her weakness in having consented to his
return. So Lodovico Moro, "that hero of patience and cunning," as
Michelet calls him, at length attained his object, and found himself
sole Regent of Milan. _Merito e tempore_ was the motto which he had
chosen for his own, and which he placed in golden letters on his shield,
and illuminated on the vellum pages of his favourite books, in the firm
belief that all things come to the man who can learn to bide his time.
Henceforth his head appeared together with that of his younger nephew on
all coins and medals, and the words _Lodovico patrue gubernante_
inscribed below.
Pandolfini, the Florentine ambassador, who had watched his course with
profound interest, sent a minute report of the latest developments of
public events to Lodovico's friend, the Magnificent Medici. A year
before, when Lodovico had just returned to Milan, the envoy remarked,
"Signor Lodovico is very popular here, both with the people and with
Madonna." Again, a little later, he wrote, "Madonna trusts much in
Messer Lodovico's good nature." Now he added, "The whole government of
the kingdom is placed in Lodovico's hands." He could not refrain from an
expression of admiration at the peaceable manner in which this
revolution had been accomplished. "With what ability and skill he has
effected this sudden change!" And he added, "I tell him, if he uses his
opportunities well, he will become the arbiter of the whole of Italy."
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Caffi in A. S. L., xiii.